We have had a few parties recently and are enjoying seeing lots of family and friends. We had our Nettesheim family party on Saturday and really enjoyed the Festivus. The Ginger Bread Houses turned out as beautiful as they always do ( that’s a sarcastic beautiful.) The Ham was delicious. Present exchange was fun and the kids did a great job acting out the birth of Christ. I LOVE this time of year!!

On Monday Night we went to my Aunts house in Orem and represented my Mom’s part of the Johnson Family. Her Parents were there and their other 2 daughters. Six of my cousins were there with their families. We ate dinner, visited and then listened to Grandpa tell some past Christmas memories. A good time had by all.

And last night was the BYU vs Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl so we had to party with the Hancock’s – Â the obsessed Cougar fans! Dan Brown was hired out to grill some good meats and we all ate too much and enjoyed watching everything go BYU’s way in the game. Tonight I think we’ll take it easy and gear up for the Christmas Eve festivities and the Christmas is here!!!!

Each year our neighbors have amazing Christmas Lights and a life size nativity in their yard. We often go by that way and drive real slow so that we can enjoy the set up. The first time Ben did this I thought he was driving off the road – now I know he’s just getting close to the fence so that the kids can see the nativity from their car seats.

Benji was playing hide and go seek with his Dad and Brother. They found him in the dryer and he had peed his pants!!! yes peed! I couldn’t stop laughing. He was hiding so he couldn’t get out cause he didn’t want to get found so he just had to go in the dryer!! He was worried that he was in big trouble but since he didn’t know that it was ok to get out and go then he was off the hook. Now he knows. Better not happen again.

During the Sacrament hymn: “Dad, this song is kind of scary.” It’s just slow. “No Dad, this one’s a little bit scary.” And he then refused to go up and sing with the primary for our Christmas Program. But he volunteered for another prayer in junior primary and he’s already given 2 talks in his first year of sunbeams.

I stopped by the mall last week and Santa was there taking pictures with all of the kids. As we walked by Benji says, “that’s a pretend Santa mom – not the real one.” I don’t know where he got that idea. I told him it just didn’t look like Santa because he wasn’t wearing his big red coat. I’m not sure if he bought it or just let it go. I think one of the problems is that 50% of Christmas Specials are about not believing in Santa – I think they have put these ideas in our young children’s heads – boo.

He also took the time to try and understand the game of football today!! that made both of his parents proud!! He could read the score and figure out which one was the Packers. It was neat to see his mind grasping all of this new knowledge.

Cali crawls in circles when she is happy. She also gets shy and squeezes her eyes shut in a real cute way. She stood up for 30 seconds yesterday! She can only do that when she doesn’t realize that she is doing it. We opened a present today and Cali got hers open quick – I think the birthday this month got her ready for Christmas morning. She is also very protective of her mom. She refuses to share my lap with either of her brothers and throws a giant fit until she gets her way.

Cali’s not so goods would be her bad habit of throwing her food on the ground when she is full and purposely feeding it to the dog! and theÂ poop dripping out the back of her diaper this afternoon was not fun. I’m just glad it wasn’t at church. And on that same note I am averaging 4 stinky diapers a day from her! (add 4 from her older brother and you can see what I do all day.)

Packer disappeared after church – he spent an hour in with the nativity set and lined up all of the people and animals and was holding his little nursery handout and comparing the Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. He wanted all of us to see that they matched.

He is getting so big – really outgrowing the baby stage all together. After Benji peed in the dryer he let me know that it is not good to do that.Â His biggest problem right now is fighting with his little sister. He gets mad when she grabs his toys or sits on the car mat. She is very grabby and Packer just can’t handle her in the middle of his games. So we are working on teaching both children to get along and play nicely together.

Cali and I had a rough morning. Cali needed a lot of attention and wouldn’t let me get anything done. I try to fold laundry and she shimmies inbetween me and the clothes and hangs on my arms. I try to bake and she tugs on my legs so I can’t move. Eventually it got to the point that she wasn’t even content with me holding her – I had to be standing and walking around with her! I tried putting her down for a morning nap – (she is deciding if she needs one nap a day or two). She screamed in her crib for 40 minutes. I went and got her at 11:15 and put her in her booster seat at the table. She then ate a hot dog and a banana and drank her bottle. She ate a lot of food and then she was ready to play!! She disappeared and played toys and wandered around the house and I was able to get everything done!! Was she really just hungry that whole time?? What baby is starving at 10am?Apparently mine was. Tomorrow I will give her a bigger breakfast and see if we have a better morning. She willingly went down for a nap at 1:30 but – 40 minutes later I am hearing her awake – – ahhh – what to do. A one year old needs more than a 1 hour nap a day to be functional.

On a side note – we played outside yesterday!! The snow is sticking around but the sun was actually out and Benji was having fun Shattering the snow ice. Cali played outside for a bit but I made her come in and watch from the window…

This morning I built a fort for the kids – they are loving it…

and the more annoying part of the Cali problem is that I have been trying to get her eating schedule figured out with the switch to real milk, trying to get the constipation and stomach aches under control. So today I was making sure not to give her her bottle too soon and I ended up with a hungry grouchy baby. Do I go get her out of bed or do I let her cry herself back to sleep?

We had a lot of fun over the weekend. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wish I would have but that is always the case when it is “local” fun. (that’s what I’m calling the non vacation, every day kind of fun like this weekend was.) Â Ben and I started the weekend with a Friday night date – The Blindside really is a good movie. I loved it. Saturday morning we met up with the Nettesheim group and took all of the kids to Cabelas to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.This was the first year that we had to wait in line to sit on the big guys lap – seems like everyone figured out the free Santa and picture this year. When we finally made it up there: Â Packer Gave Santa a big hug, Cali cried her eyes out and Benji was shy at first but at the end of his visit with Santa he realized that he had better let Santa know what he wanted or else Santa might not know so he went back and asked for a scooter, Ben 10 Stuff, and Ninja Turtle Stuff.

This is all 4 families ready to drive to Cabela’s:

and all of the Cousins with Santa: 3 of the 4 families are missing their youngest child in the group shot – why are little ones always afraid?

After Cabelas we all had lunch together and then that night a group of us went to the Hale Center Theater in Orem and watched “A Christmas Carol” – they do a great job with that play – we all loved it – my husband loved it the most. He is a Christmas Maniac, his middle name should be Santa or Nicholas. Sunday we got together with some of my extended family for my cousins baby blessing. And then we were off to the Hancock Wassel party – where I got to drink Grandma Robertsons Christmas Punch and eat too much and visit with friends. That was our fun weekend. That 2 and half days always goes to quickly, then you throw a party or two in and it really flies by.

This is just a fun picture of Packer, Benji, Camry and Pacen – we hadn’t seen these guys in a week or two so they were happy to be back together last week and the fruit by the foot was obviously the cause for smiles in this pic.